Collaboration in Action: Apereo's Voice at OW2con 2025
Apereo was proud to participate in OW2con 2025 (session videos available here), held on June 17–18 in Paris, joining open source communities from around the world in shaping the future of digital collaboration. This year, Apereo took a leading role by organizing the Open Source in Education track, creating a dedicated space to explore how open technologies are transforming teaching, learning, and research.
The conference provided a rich opportunity to deepen the dialogue around the intersection of open source and higher education, with Apereo contributing to two significant workshops that resonated across both academic and developer communities.
Exploring Open Source Adoption in Higher Education
One key highlight was a workshop presenting preliminary findings from a global survey on the adoption and perceptions of Open Source Software (OSS) in Higher Education. This session provided early insights into how institutions worldwide are engaging with open source, from infrastructure and enterprise tools to teaching and research support systems.
The discussion helped uncover both opportunities and challenges in OSS adoption, emphasizing the importance of sustainability, community engagement, and institutional support. Participants provided valuable feedback, contributing to a more nuanced understanding of how open source can serve the evolving needs of the academic sector.
Introducing the Open Source AI Definition to Academia
A second workshop focused on the Open Source Initiative’s (OSI) new Open Source AI Definition—an emerging framework to guide the responsible development and use of AI in open contexts. The session was led by Simon Phipps, OSI Policy Director, who provided an engaging and informative presentation introducing the definition to an academic audience.
Phipps outlined the goals and principles behind the initiative, sparking a thoughtful discussion on the definition’s potential implications for research, teaching, and learning within higher education. Attendees explored how the definition might influence the development of AI tools within universities, the importance of transparency and reproducibility in academic AI systems, and the potential for open source AI to support equitable access to innovation. Institutions were invited to provide targeted feedback on areas of alignment and concern, helping to shape the definition’s refinement and implementation.
A Strong Apereo Presence
The Apereo community was well represented at OW2con 2025, with participation from across our global network:
Inge Donkervoort, Apereo Board Member, Xerte Project Management Committee Member, and Co-Founder of DLearning
Marcel Oostdijk, Apereo Board member-elect
Tom Reijnders, also with the Xerte project and Xerte contributor, DLearning.
Tomáš Müller and Zuzana Müllerová, Project Management Committee Members with UniTime
Kirsten Heiss and Melissa Mitchell from OpenCampus, Apereo’s newest Commercial Member
Patrick Masson, Apereo Executive Director
Their contributions across sessions and discussions helped emphasize Apereo’s mission: to advance open source as a shared, collaborative foundation for higher education.
Looking Ahead: Strengthening European Engagement and Impact
OW2con 2025 reaffirmed the vital role European open source communities play in shaping the digital infrastructure of education. As Apereo looks to the future, we are committed to expanding participation among our European projects and members, recognizing the immense value they bring to the global open source landscape.
Active involvement in events like OW2con not only raises the visibility of individual projects but also opens doors to new contributors, institutional partners, and business opportunities. By showcasing their innovations, those working in and with European communities can attract broader interest, strengthen adoption across the higher education sector, and help demonstrate the collective power of open source solutions.
At the same time, deeper engagement strengthens Apereo’s mission to position open source as a strategic, community-driven foundation for research, teaching, and learning. The more our members collaborate and share their work, the more we can amplify the value proposition of open technologies in service to education worldwide.
We look forward to building on the connections made in Paris and to welcoming even more European voices into Apereo’s ongoing initiatives.